Effect of stimulus pattern on temporal acuity in the somatosensory system.

Abstract

The ability to distinguish a gap in a repetitive train of electrical pulse stimuli applied to the [human] skin is a function of the pattern of the stimulus sequence. The purpose of this experiment was to describe the effects of stimulus amplitude, stimulus interval, stimulus numerosity, and the position of the gap in the stimulus train on the threshold for gap detection. The results of these experiments indicated that while stimulus intensity did not affect the threshold, all the other 3 parameters produced interesting and significant effects.